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NASA NTRS2023

X-Ray Polarimetry of the Accreting Pulsar GX 301-2

The phase- and energy-resolved polarization measurements of accreting X-ray pulsars (XRPs) allow us to test different theoretical models of their emission, and they also provide an avenue to determine the emission region geometry. We present the results of the observations of the XRPGX 301−2 performed with the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE). A persistent XRP, GX 301−2 has one of the longest spin periods known:∼680 s. A massive hyper-giant companion star Wray 977 supplies mass to the neutron star via powerful stellar winds. We did not detect significant polarization in the phase-averaged data when using spectropolarimetric analysis, with the upper limit on the polarization degree (PD)of 2.3% (99% confidence level). Using the phase-resolved spectropolarimetric analysis, we obtained a significant detection of polarization (above99% confidence level) in two out of nine phase bins and a marginal detection in three bins, with a PD ranging between∼3% and∼10% and a polarization angle varying in a very wide range from∼0◦to∼160◦. Using the rotating vector model, we obtained constraints on the pulsar geometry using both phase-binned and unbinned analyses, finding excellent agreement. Finally, we discuss possible reasons for a low observed polarization in GX 301−2.

GX 301-2, polarization, X-ray, X-ray binary, pulsa↗
NASA NTRS1973

Oxidation of organic molecules by photoproduced holes of ZnO.

Two experimental techniques were developed. In the first, an electrochemical method was used with a single crystal ZnO electrode and with the material of interest dissolved in the electrolyte. In the other an electron spin resonance method was used so that measurements related to thermal control coatings could be made with the ZnO in the form of powder, either alone or in formulation of a binder. A simplified model regarding the relationship between the electron density and time is considered.

Sancier, K. M.↗
NASA NTRS1992

A model of convection and corotation in Jupiter's magnetosphere - Ulysses predictions

The Ulysses Jupiter encounter will include the first spacecraft pass through the dusk magnetosphere and will allow new tests of Jovian convection and corotation models. The Cheng and Krimigis (1989) model is extended to suggest that corotation lag occurs principally within the magnetodisk proper, which extends out to about 60-70 Rj. It is predicted that outside this radius, in the premidnight sector, spin-up to near corotation may occur owing to a local reduction in the outward mass transport rate. The mass loss may occur mainly in the dawn sector, to the magnetospheric wind and the dawn magnetosheath.

Cheng, A. F.↗
NASA NTRS2001

Spinning Rocket Simulator Turntable Design

Contained herein is the research and data acquired from the Turntable Design portion of the Spinning Rocket Simulator (SRS) project. The SRS Project studies and eliminates the effect of coning on thrust-propelled spacecraft. This design and construction of the turntable adds a structural support for the SRS model and two degrees of freedom. The two degrees of freedom, radial and circumferential, will help develop a simulated thrust force perpendicular to the plane of the spacecraft model while undergoing an unstable coning motion. The Turntable consists of a ten-foot linear track mounted to a sprocket and press-fit to a thrust bearing. A two-inch high column grounded by a Triangular Baseplate supports this bearing and houses the slip rings and pressurized, air-line swivel. The thrust bearing allows the entire system to rotate under the moment applied through the chain-driven sprocket producing a circumferential degree of freedom. The radial degree of freedom is given to the model through the helically threaded linear track. This track allows the Model Support and Counter Balance to simultaneously reposition according to the coning motion of the Model. Two design factors that hinder the linear track are bending and twist due to torsion. A Standard Aluminum "C" channel significantly reduces these two deflections. Safety considerations dictate the design of all the components involved in this project.

Miles, Robert W.↗
NASA NTRS2001

Friction Stir Welding Development at NASA, Marshall Space Flight Center

Friction stir welding (FSW) is a solid state process that pan be used to join materials without melting. The process was invented by The Welding Institute (TWI), Cambridge, England. Friction stir welding exhibits several advantages over fusion welding in that it produces welds with fewer defects and higher joint efficiency and is capable of joining alloys that are generally considered non-weldable with a fusion weld process. In 1994, NASA-Marshall began collaborating with TWI to transform FSW from a laboratory curiosity to a viable metal joining process suitable for manufacturing hardware. While teamed with TWI, NASA-Marshall began its own FSW research and development effort to investigate possible aerospace applications for the FSW process. The work involved nearly all aspects of FSW development, including process modeling, scale-up issues, applications to advanced materials and development of tooling to use FSW on components of the Space Shuttle with particular emphasis on aluminum tanks. The friction stir welding process involves spinning a pin-tool at an appropriate speed, plunging it into the base metal pieces to be joined, and then translating it along the joint of the work pieces. In aluminum alloys the rotating speed typically ranges from 200 to 400 revolutions per minute and the translation speed is approximately two to five inches per minute. The pin-tool is inserted at a small lead angle from the axis normal to the work piece and requires significant loading along the axis of the tool. An anvil or reaction structure is required behind the welded material to react the load along the axis of the pin tool. The process requires no external heat input, filler material, protective shielding gas or inert atmosphere typical of fusion weld processes. The FSW solid-state weld process has resulted in aluminum welds with significantly higher strengths, higher joint efficiencies and fewer defects than fusion welds used to join similar alloys.

McGill, Preston↗
NASA NTRS2006

A Possible Magnetar Nature for IGR J16358-4726

We present detailed spectral and timing analysis of the hard x-ray transient IGR J16358-4726 using multi-satellite archival observations. A study of the source flux time history over 6 years, suggests that this transient outbursts can be occurring in intervals of at most 1 year. Joint spectral fits using simultaneous Chandra/ACIS and INTEGRAL/ISGRI data reveal a spectrum well described by an absorbed cut-off power law model plus an Fe line. We detected the pulsations initially reported using Chandra/ACIS also in the INTEGRAL/ISGRI light curve and in subsequent XMM-Newton observations. Using the INTEGRAL data we identified a pulse spin up of 94 s (P = 1.6 x 10(exp -4), which strongly points to a neutron star nature for IGR J16358-4726. Assuming that the spin up is due to disc accretion, we estimate that the source magnetic field ranges between 10(sup 13) approximately 10(sup 15) depending on its distance, possibly supporting a magnetar nature for IGR J16358-4726.

Patel, S.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Systematic Biases in Parameter Estimation of Binary Black-Hole Mergers

Parameter estimation of binary-black-hole merger events in gravitational-wave data relies on matched filtering techniques, which, in turn, depend on accurate model waveforms. Here we characterize the systematic biases introduced in measuring astrophysical parameters of binary black holes by applying the currently most accurate effective-one-body templates to simulated data containing non-spinning numerical-relativity waveforms. For advanced ground-based detectors, we find that the systematic biases are well within the statistical error for realistic signal-to-noise ratios (SNR). These biases grow to be comparable to the statistical errors at high signal-to-noise ratios for ground-based instruments (SNR approximately 50) but never dominate the error budget. At the much larger signal-to-noise ratios expected for space-based detectors, these biases will become large compared to the statistical errors but are small enough (at most a few percent in the black-hole masses) that we expect they should not affect broad astrophysical conclusions that may be drawn from the data.

Littenberg, Tyson B.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Constraints on the Emission and Viewing Geometry of the Transient Anomalous X-ray Pulsar XTE J1810-197

The temporal decay of the flux components of the transient anomalous X-ray pulsar XTE J1 810-197 following its 2002 outburst presents a unique opportunity to probe the emission geometry of a magnetar. Toward this goal, we model the magnitude of the pulsar's modulation in narrow spectral bands over time. Following previous work, we assume that the postoutburst flux is produced in two distinct thermal components arising from a hot spot and a warm concentric ring. We include general relativistic effects on the blackbody spectra due to gravitational redshift and light bending near the stellar surface, which strongly depend on radius. This affects the model fits for the temperature and size of the emission regions. For the hot spot, the observed temporal and energy-dependent pulse modulation is found to require an anisotropic, pencil-beamed radiation pattern. We are able to constrain an allowed range for the angles that the line of sight (psi) and the hot spot pole (xi) make with respect to the spin axis. Within errors, this is defined by the locus of points in the xi-psi plane that lie along the line [xi + beta(R)] [psi + [beta(R)] = const, where beta(R) is a function of the radius R of the star. For a canonical value of R = 12 km, the viewing parameters range from psi = xi = 37deg to (psi, xi) = (85deg, 15deg). We discuss our results in the context of magnetar emission models.

Perna, Rosalba↗
NASA NTRS2002

The Permanent and Inductive Magnetic Moments of Ganymede

Data acquired by the Galileo magnetometer on five passes by Ganymede have been used to characterize Ganymede's internal magnetic moments. Three of the five passes were useful for determination of the internal moments through quadrupole order. Models representing the internal field as the sum of dipole and quadrupole terms or as the sum of a permanent dipole field upon which is superimposed an induced magnetic dipole driven by the time varying component of the externally imposed magnetic field of Jupiter's magnetosphere give equally satisfactory fits to the data. The permanent dipole moment has an equatorial field magnitude 719 nT and is tilted by 176 degrees from the spin axis with the pole in the southern hemisphere rotated by 24 degrees from the Jupiter-facing meridian plane towards the trailing hemisphere. The data are consistent with an inductive response of a good electrical conductor of radius approximately 1 Ganymede radius. Although the data do not enable us to establish the presence of an inductive response beyond doubt, we favor the inductive response model because it gives a good fit to the data using only 4 parameters to describe the internal sources of fields, whereas the equally good dipole plus quadrupole fit requires 8 parameters. An inductive response is consistent with a buried conducting shell, probably liquid water with dissolved electrolytes, somewhere in the first few hundred km below Ganymede's surface. The depth at which the ocean is buried beneath the surface is somewhat uncertain, but our favored model suggests a depth of order 150 kilometers. As both temperature and pressure increase with depth and the melting temperature of pure ice decreases to a minimum at approximately 170 kilometer depth, it seems possible that near this location, a layer of water would be sandwiched between layers of ice.

Kivelson, M. G.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Demand access protocol design and validation with SPIN

In order for distributed systems to communicate reliably engineers standardize on communication rules (or protocols). Unforeseen behavior in communication protocols can push faults up to applications resulting in uncontrollable systems and should not be tolerated. However, while most modern protocols undergo extensive testing, rigorous formal methods, such as model checking,are rarely used due to complexity and massive incomputable state spaces.

Seguí, John S.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Constraining Gamma-Ray Pulsar Gap Models with a Simulated Pulsar Population

With the large sample of young gamma-ray pulsars discovered by the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT), population synthesis has become a powerful tool for comparing their collective properties with model predictions. We synthesised a pulsar population based on a radio emission model and four gamma-ray gap models (Polar Cap, Slot Gap, Outer Gap, and One Pole Caustic). Applying gamma-ray and radio visibility criteria, we normalise the simulation to the number of detected radio pulsars by a select group of ten radio surveys. The luminosity and the wide beams from the outer gaps can easily account for the number of Fermi detections in 2 years of observations. The wide slot-gap beam requires an increase by a factor of 10 of the predicted luminosity to produce a reasonable number of gamma-ray pulsars. Such large increases in the luminosity may be accommodated by implementing offset polar caps. The narrow polar-cap beams contribute at most only a handful of LAT pulsars. Using standard distributions in birth location and pulsar spin-down power (E), we skew the initial magnetic field and period distributions in a an attempt to account for the high E Fermi pulsars. While we compromise the agreement between simulated and detected distributions of radio pulsars, the simulations fail to reproduce the LAT findings: all models under-predict the number of LAT pulsars with high E , and they cannot explain the high probability of detecting both the radio and gamma-ray beams at high E. The beaming factor remains close to 1.0 over 4 decades in E evolution for the slot gap whereas it significantly decreases with increasing age for the outer gaps. The evolution of the enhanced slot-gap luminosity with E is compatible with the large dispersion of gamma-ray luminosity seen in the LAT data. The stronger evolution predicted for the outer gap, which is linked to the polar cap heating by the return current, is apparently not supported by the LAT data. The LAT sample of gamma-ray pulsars therefore provides a fresh perspective on the early evolution of the luminosity and beam width of the gamma-ray emission from young pulsars, calling for thin and more luminous gaps.

Pierbattista, Marco↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Electric Sail Design Sensitivities

Electric Sails (E-Sails) are a promising propulsion technology that seek to enable high characteristic propellentless acceleration for spacecraft to reach distant and/or difficult to reach orbits such as rapid transit to heliopause. The E-Sail system exchanges momentum by using positively charged electrostatic tethers to repel solar wind photons to push it through space. This concept was first theorized by Pekka Janhunen in 2004 with further developments occurring including a NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts Phase 1 and Phase 2 hosted out of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). These developments led to further maturation of the overall system, and this paper is designed to help identify different design sensitivities of an integrated Electric Sail system. To approach this, a small team at MSFC took an in-house developed three degrees of freedom (3DoF) simulation tool and a trajectory modelling tool to look at different design parameters and to determine a potential ideal E-Sail configuration. An E-Sail system has different design architectures including a barbell design, hub and spoke design, and a potential hybrid solution. The barbell design features two equally massed satellites that spin around a central point in the tether system. The hub and spoke design features a large central spacecraft with small end spacecraft to aid in formation control of the overall E-Sail system. Leveraging elements from both the hub and spoke, and barbell design, a hybrid option exists where one could have a larger central mass and one or two tethers extended to a smaller end mass [2]. In summary, the hub and spoke design is the ideal configuration for E-Sail with tethers spanning kilometers to achieve the designed design characteristic acceleration of at least one mm/s2 with this architecture being the focus of this study. Different key design parameters were varied as part of this study. These parameters include the total number of tethers, the length of the tethers, spin rate, relative spacecraft mass, tether voltage, inertia per tether, and impact of slew rate changes. These results started from an internal MSFC technology demonstration mission design and then the parameters were varied with engineering judgement to ensure that the results were consistent with expected results. These were varied in the MSFC 3DoF tool and compared to baseline results to generate a candidate ideal E-Sail design system. These results were then used to help inform the mission analysis design for the system. The 3DoF trajectory optimization was performed in the Astrodynamics and Space Science Enabling Toolbox (ASSET) and utilized collocation optimization of control vector pointing with the objective function being transfer duration. A representative model of the E-Sail force was derived as a function of the Sun-pointing vector direction. This model was initialized with a zero Sun Incidence Angle (SIA) trajectory for the initial guess generation, then with a portion of the mission optimized SIA time history for fast outbound transfers. After the trajectory is hyperbolic relative to a heliocentric frame, the SIA is maintained at 0 degrees except for any needed trajectory correction maneuvers. This trajectory optimization looked at different characteristic acceleration values to analyze the impact it had on mission performance. As a result of this study, the team can best inform mission designers and technology development efforts to mature the E-Sail system. This study will allow mission designers to have defined rules-of-thumb to design an E-Sail system to meet desired mission needs as well as providing several sample mission profiles. These design drivers will inform maturation efforts on which design requirements to consider for an integrated E-Sail design.

E-Sail↗
NASA NTRS2009

Simulation and Interpretation of the Genesis of Tropical Storm Gert (2005) as Part of the NASA Tropical Cloud Systems and Processes Experiment

Several hypotheses have been put forward for the how tropical cyclones (tropical storms and hurricanes in the Atlantic) first develop circulation at the surface, a key event that needs to occur before a storm can begin to draw energy from the warm ocean. One hypothesis suggests that the surface circulation forms from a "top-down" approach in which a storm s rotating circulation begins at middle levels of the atmosphere and builds down to the surface through processes related to light "stratiform" (horizontally extensive) precipitation. Another hypothesis suggests a bottom-up approach in which deep thunderstorm towers (convection) play the major role in spinning up the flow at the surface. These "hot towers" form in the area of the mid-level circulation and strongly concentrate this rotation at low levels within their updrafts. Merger of several of these hot towers then intensifies the surface circulation to the point in which a storm forms. This paper examines computer simulations of Tropical Storm Gert (2005), which formed in the Gulf of Mexico during the National Aeronautics and Space Administration s (NASA) Tropical Cloud Systems and Processes (TCSP) Experiment, to investigate the development of low-level circulation and, in particular, whether stratiform or hot tower processes were responsible for the storm s formation. Data from NASA satellites and from aircraft were used to show that the model did a good job of reproducing the formation and evolution of Gert. The simulation shows that a mix of both stratiform and convective rainfall occurred within Gert. While the stratiform rainfall clearly acted to increase rotation at middle levels, the diverging outflow beneath the stratiform rain worked against spinning up the low-level winds. The hot towers appeared to dominate the low-level flow, producing intense rotation within their cores and often being associated with significant pressure falls at the surface. Over time, many of these hot towers merged, with each merger adding to the rotation of the storm and the pressure falls at the surface. This process continued to increase the strength of the storm until the storm made landfall on the east coast of Mexico. These results support the bottom-up hypothesis for development.

Braun, Scott A.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Formations of Tethered Spacecraft as Stable Platforms for Far IR and Sub-mm Astronomy

In this paper we describe current research in tethered formations for interferometry, and a roadmap to demonstrating the required key technologies via on-ground and in-orbit testing. We propose an integrated kilometer-size tethered spacecraft formation flying concept which enables Far IR and Sub-mm astronomy observations from space. A rather general model is used to predict the dynamics, control, and estimation performance of formations of spacecraft connected by tethers in LEO and deep space. These models include the orbital and tethered formation dynamics, environmental models, and models of the formation estimator/controller/commander. Both centralized and decentralized control/sensing/estimation schemes are possible, and dynamic ranges of interest for sensing/control are described. Key component/subsystem technologies are described which need both ground-based and in-orbit demonstration prior to their utilization in precision space interferometry missions using tethered formations. Defining an orbiting formation as an ensemble of orbiting spacecraft performing a cooperative task, recent work has demonstrated the validity of the tethering the spacecraft to provide both the required formation rigidity and satisfy the formation reconfiguration needs such as interferometer baseline control. In our concept, several vehicles are connected and move along the tether, so that to reposition them the connecting tether links must vary in length. This feature enables variable and precise baseline control while the system spins around the boresight. The control architecture features an interferometer configuration composed of one central combiner spacecraft and two aligned collector spacecraft. The combiner spacecraft acts as the formation leader and is also where the centralized sensing and estimation functions reside. Some of the issues analyzed with the model are: dynamic modes of deformation of the distributed structure, architecture of the formation sensor, and sources of dynamical perturbation that need to be mitigated for precision operation in space. Examples from numerical simulation of an envisioned scenario in heliocentric orbit demonstrate the potential of the concept for space interferometry.

Quadrelli, Marco B.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Satellite measurement of aerosol mass over land

The estimation of aerosol optical thickness and mass from satellite observations over land is demonstrated using data from the GOES Visible/IR Spin-Scan Radiometer for the eastern U.S. The post-launch calibration technique is described; the algorithm used to derive optical thickness from the radiance of scattered sunlight (by means of a radiative-transfer model in which the optical characteristics of the aerosol are assumed) is presented; and data on aerosol S for July 31, 1980 are analyzed. The results are presented in a series of graphs and maps and compared with ground-based data. The errors in the optical thickness and columnar mass are estimated as 15 and 40 percent, respectively, and the need for independent-data-set validation of satellite-based mass, transport, and divergence values is indicated.

Fraser, R. S.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Some unsolved problems in evolutionary dynamics in the solar system

Several unsolved problems in the evolutionary histories leading to current dynamical configurations of the planets and their systems of satellites are discussed. These include the possibilities of rather tight constraints on the primordial rotation states of Mercury and Venus and the stabilizing mechanism for the latter's retrograde spin, a brief mention of the problem of origin of the moons of earth and Mars, the excessive heat flow from Jupiter's satellite Io which is not compatible with an otherwise self-consistent model of origin of the Laplace three-body libration, the mechanism for the long history of resurfacing of Saturn's satellite Enceladus and the possibly short lifetime of the A ring and the mechanisms for resurfacing the satellites of Uranus, especially Ariel, if the high stability of the mean motion orbital resonances at the 2/1 commensurability involving Ariel and Umbriel precludes a long term occupancy of the resonance. Finally, excessive times of accumulation of the outer planets in current models may possibly be reducible from the effects of nebular gas drag.

Peale, S. J.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Heavy fermion behavior explained by bosons

Conventional heavy fermion (HF) theories require existence of massive fermions. We show that heavy fermion phenomena can also be simply explained by existence of bosons with moderate mass but temperature dependent concentration below the formation temperature T(sub B), which in turn is close to room temperature. The bosons B(++) are proposed to be in chemical equilibrium with a system of holes h(+): B(++) = h(+) + h(+). This equilibrium is governed by a boson breaking function f(T), which determines the decreasing boson density and the increasing fermion density with increasing temperature. Since HF-compounds are hybridized from minimum two elements, we assume in addition existence of another fermion component h(sub s)(+) with temperature independent density. This spectator component is thought to be the main agent in binding the bosons in analogy with electronic or muonic molecules. Using a linear boson breaking function we can explain temperature dependence of the giant linear specific heat coefficient gamma(T) coming essentially from bosons. The maxima in resistivity, Hall coefficient, and susceptibility are explained by boson localization effects due to the Wigner crystallization. The antiferromagnetic transitions in turn are explained by similar localization of the pairing fermion system when their density n(sub h)(T(sub FL)) becomes lower than n(sub WC), the critical density of Wigner crystallization. The model applies irrespective whether a compound is superconducting or not. The same model explains the occurrence of low temperature antiferromagnetism also in high-T(sub c) superconductors. The double transition in UPt3 is proposed to be due to the transition of the pairing fermion liquid from spin polarized to unpolarized state.

Kallio, A.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Shunted Piezoelectric Vibration Damping Analysis Including Centrifugal Loading Effects

Excessive vibration of turbomachinery blades causes high cycle fatigue problems which require damping treatments to mitigate vibration levels. One method is the use of piezoelectric materials as passive or active dampers. Based on the technical challenges and requirements learned from previous turbomachinery rotor blades research, an effort has been made to investigate the effectiveness of a shunted piezoelectric for the turbomachinery rotor blades vibration control, specifically for a condition with centrifugal rotation. While ample research has been performed on the use of a piezoelectric material with electric circuits to attempt to control the structural vibration damping, very little study has been done regarding rotational effects. The present study attempts to fill this void. Specifically, the objectives of this study are: (a) to create and analyze finite element models for harmonic forced response vibration analysis coupled with shunted piezoelectric circuits for engine blade operational conditions, (b) to validate the experimental test approaches with numerical results and vice versa, and (c) to establish a numerical modeling capability for vibration control using shunted piezoelectric circuits under rotation. Study has focused on a resonant damping control using shunted piezoelectric patches on plate specimens. Tests and analyses were performed for both non-spinning and spinning conditions. The finite element (FE) shunted piezoelectric circuit damping simulations were performed using the ANSYS Multiphysics code for the resistive and inductive circuit piezoelectric simulations of both conditions. The FE results showed a good correlation with experimental test results. Tests and analyses of shunted piezoelectric damping control, demonstrating with plate specimens, show a great potential to reduce blade vibrations under centrifugal loading.

Min, James B.↗